LAHORE, July 6: The millers on Thursday increased flour price by Rs4 per 20kg bag blaming rise in wheat price in open market for the hike, which, according to them, has jumped beyond Rs415 per 40kg.

Linking the unilateral increase in wheat flour price, with fluctuation in market, Majid Abdullah of Pakistan Flour Mills Association said the government could influence price while releasing wheat to millers. Otherwise, he said, open market dictates the price mechanism. Any increase in input price had to be reflected in the output, he argued.

He said the government had fixed Rs253 ex-mill price for 20kg flour bag, but the market price had been much less because of ample availability of wheat. With the latest increase, the ex-mill price would increase from Rs234 per 20kg bag to Rs238, which was still Rs15 less than what the government had allowed the millers, he said.

Mr Irfan Ellahi, Director Food, on the other hand said that he would be holding a meeting with the millers on Friday (today) and see if the increase was justified. “All expenditures of the millers are documented, and any increase in them could be calculated and final price arrived at,” he said. The latest increase would be analysed in the backdrop of these calculations and finalised.

He said the ex-mill price of Rs253 was fixed keeping in view the Rs440 or Rs450 per 40kg wheat price, which the provincial government was expected to charge from the millers.

The final decision, he said, would be taken at Friday meeting when millers and department high-ups would discuss the raise. He said it often happened that millers increased price and later rationalised it after negotiations with the government. Dispelling the millers’ claim that the government could only interfere in the price mechanism while releasing wheat, he said the government could interfere whenever the millers tended to be unreasonable in their price fixation.

Rejecting the possibility of any miller’s cartel influencing the price, he said in the present situation when the market had ample wheat supply, it was not possible for millers to create a cartel.

He said the price raise could not be enforced in the market unless the millers justified it before the department